


The Cats Situation

by ImNotAMarySue (writethatdownpls)



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Cats, That's it that's all you need to know, although he doesn't know what cats are, nothing bad happens just cats being cats, soft, zagreus being soft about cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28325808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writethatdownpls/pseuds/ImNotAMarySue
Summary: “I gave names to all of them, actually,” Zagreus said, sounding proud of himself. “See, this one is Thanatos, Than for shorts, because they look grumpy all the time but they also love cuddling."
Comments: 8
Kudos: 90





	The Cats Situation

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays and really, don't ask me about this, I'll explain later. Oh, and I haven't finished the game yet, I just got to see Persephone for the third time.
> 
> (Also, English is not my first language, yadda yadda, I am in my fourth English Studies year in college, so really, I am doing my very best here.)
> 
> ((And I suck at titles. I'll always suck at titles)

“Look at this, mother!” Zagreus lifted the little creature he was cradling between his arms and showed them to Persephone. “Aren’t they the cutest?”

She let out a sigh. 

Alright, Persephone could start from the beginning. 

Persephone had tried her best to not be found. Hidden in the small cabin she had decided to call home, situated in some remote corner of Greece, not even the people (mortals) living the closest to her knew anything about her real identity. 

...Yes, despite the fact that since she had come to live there, the weather always seemed to favor her harvest. No snow, no floods, no drought. Quite suspicious, but the neighbors had ended up thinking she was just very favored by the Gods.

_(Luckily.)_

In any case, coming back to the main point, she had tried to hide both from mortals and Gods. _Of course_ , even from her mother. _Of course_ , even from aunts, cousins, and all those Olympic Relatives. Olympic Pains in the Ass, sometimes. Oh, she liked them, most of the time, but after what happened in the depths of hell, she just needed to… rest. To save herself from the world. Live peacefully. For how long? Persephone didn’t know. But that was just fine with her.

She needed to mourn her son.

And then said son came walking through the gates of her little garden, his fire steps not even burning the grass around him. Because, first of all, he didn’t die (or did he?) in the end; and second of all, because she hadn’t been strong enough to hide herself too far from where the gates to the underworld were placed.

So of course Zagreus had found her. Of course. With a little bit of help from Nyx, but he had found her, and would always find her.

Persephone had found her will to live again, waiting and waiting and asking herself when would Zagreus come back, wishful to see her son once again, even if it was only a few minutes each time, depending on how fast was Zagreus to reach her garden. But he tried his best, he always tried his best.

He had already visited five times when _that situation_ happened.

It was a good day, as any day was. A little bit cloudy, but since Persephone had met Zagreus every day seemed a little brighter than the previous one, even if it wasn’t necessarily the case. Zagreus hadn’t visited that long ago, it had been around seven moons, although Persephone was quite sure Zagreus didn’t quite grasp the concept of time as well, living in the Underworld. And that was okay! Zagreus would take whatever time was necessary to reach the surface to see her, Persephone had all the time in the world to wait for him. Because she _knew_ he would come back, at some point.

Still, when she spotted her son walking through the snowy path towards the garden, Persephone’s heart started swelling with love. He had made it again, and so soon!

However, it didn’t take long for her to notice there was _something… different._

_…_

Was she… Was Persephone hearing things or that was the meowing of _too many cats?_

And so, yes, Zagreus came back into the garden just like during his five prior visits. Just, this time, he was carrying a cat in his arms and was being followed by one, two, _five_ , _ten_ …

_Twenty-six other cats. A total of twenty-seven,_ counting the one he was carrying.

What the—

“Look at this, mother!” Zagreus lifted the little creature he was cradling between his arms and showed them to Persephone. “Aren’t they the cutest?”

Persephone let out a sigh. 

“They are… quite cute, indeed, my dear Zagreus,” Persephone answered. “And I’m so glad to see you again so soon, but would you kindly tell me why you brought so many cats with you?”

“Why did I bring so many _what_?” Zagreus tilted his head, taking the small ball of grey fur against his chest one again.

“So many cats, darling,” Persephone repeated.

“What are _‘cats’_?”

Persephone blinked and let the silence hang in there for a few seconds. 

Oh. 

Of course.

“Those are called cats, all of them,” Persephone explained. “They inhabit the surface. They are present in almost every territory. Sometimes they are kept as pets, although they are quite independent, to say the least.”

“Oh, so they are called ‘cats’!” Zagreus finally understood, a smile appearing on his lips. 

Then his expression changed and he let out an ‘ouch’.

“Honey?”

“Hey, buddy, don’t— Don’t do that, alright? I’m quite hurt already,” Zagreus separated the small cat from his chest (where small red dots had appeared) and delicately left it between the rest of the cats, which now walked and sat and meowed around his feet. “Ouch…”

_(And yes, he looked like he had gone through hell, quite literally. Thankfully his godly regeneration abilities were already doing their best to heal his wounds.)_

“Are you alright, Zagreus?” Persephone asked, a frown appearing on her brow.

“Yes, don’t worry, mother,” Zagreus shook his head. “They just hurt me with their tiny mighty claws. After what I’ve been through, it’s not too much.”

“I can imagine,” Persephone nodded. “Still, my question still stands. Why did you bring so many cats?”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t bring them. Not quite,” Zagreus words were almost unheard because around twenty cats decided to meow at the same time. “You see, this all started during my second visit, mother. I had just vanquished father when this little tiny white _cat_ came out from one corner of what has been our battlefield since the first time I tried to come to find you— oh, where are they— that one,” and he pointed to a small white cat that was nestled the closest to his right foot. “I call them Chaos because they came before the rest.”

“Oh, you gave them a name and all,” Persephone commented.

“I gave names to all of them, actually,” Zagreus said, sounding proud of himself. “See, this one is Thanatos, Than for shorts, because they look grumpy all the time but they also love cuddling. That other one is Megaera, Meg for shorts, because they have the bad habit of scratching my legs the most. That other one is Dusa, because I find them the cutest, and also they are very clean. This one is Achilles—”

“Zagreus—”  
  


“I’m digressing, sorry, mother,” Zagreus finally stopped pointing at cat after cat and looked again at his mom. “So, Chaos, right? They came towards me after the fight and immediately decided to cuddle near my feet. And I mean, I couldn’t blame them, right? It is cold back in there, I can only guess, and my feet are warm, to say the least. I thought, ‘well, I can let them cuddle for a few minutes, right? I have time for that’. So Chaos spent some time curled up until they fell asleep, and then I came to see you.”

“The thing is,” Zagreus continued, “Chaos was there too, the third time I managed to vanquish father, but this time he was with Zeus, Poseidon and Demeter,” Zagreus pointed at three other cats, two of them were trying to climb his robes and the third one was judging them in the distance. “So I let them curl up for a while and then I came here.”

Persephone massaged the bridge of her nose. Oh, she was already aware of how things had evolved from then on, her son didn’t really have to detail it...

“Next time there was also Hermes, and Artemis, and Athena, and Ares, and the fourth time Orpheus, Eurydice, Aphrodite, Achilles, Dusa, Thanatos and Megaera had joined and… well, you can imagine it’s difficult for me to get them to sleep at the same time, so I changed plans!” Zagreus explained. “They could play, receive some cuddles from me, they are soft and I don’t mind petting them, not at all. So they could stay around my feet for a while and then I would usher them away and come see you. But… well…” Zagreus scratched his head. “It didn’t work today.”

“I can… see that,” Persephone managed to say as one of the cats (Demeter, maybe?) started to rub against her legs.

“So on my way here I just thought, ‘hey, mother’s garden is quite big, and is always sunny there, right? It must be hot in there,’” Zagreus continued. Persephone arched an eyebrow.

_(Oh, no.)_

“Zagreus, do you want me to—”

“Would you, mother? Please?”

“—adopt twenty-seven cats?” Persephone finished.

“...Yes, mother. That is exactly what I would like,” Zagreus confirmed, quite serious all of a sudden. “...Please,” he added and, oh, that was the closest Zagreus had ever been to making a pout.

Zagreus really was that kind of boy, wasn’t it? The one who would rescue 27 cats from the snow and would bring them all to his house, let them sit at (or near) his feet, who coincidentally happened to be on fire. The one who would give them names thinking of his friends, based on their personalities. The one who would probably cry because he didn’t have enough hands to pet them all at the same time, although he had to be used to that with Cerberus.

_(Admittedly, not every head of Cerberus liked to be petted, but that was another thing entirely.)_

Zagreus would do all that and more, but there was a problem. He couldn’t take all those cats to hell. He couldn’t take a single cat, as a matter of fact.

_(And admittedly, too, Persephone would do anything for her son.)_

“...For you? I would even adopt a thousand cats,” Persephone accepted.

And she hadn’t even finished talking when Zagreus threw himself to hug her, the cats following after him and then surrounding then both.

“Thank you, mother,” Zagreus whispered. Persephone just hugged him tightly.

That was how they spent the rest of the time Zagreus’ could be there learning the name of the cats. For once, they didn’t talk about them. For once, they didn’t talk about Hades. They would be reunited once again, soon, Zagreus would make sure of that. He now had to go see his cats, apart from his mother. Petting cats was always a nice incentive, Persephone was sure of it.

_(Not that Zagreus needed another one in the first place, but…)_

So Zagreus was once again gone, but Persephone didn’t find herself being so sad as before, as she had a total of twenty-seven cats to keep her company. Moreover, they reminded her of Zagreus. 

...Although, truth be told, when Zagreus appeared the next time with ten more cats, Persephone almost passed out.

**Author's Note:**

> All of this was because of [this](https://twitter.com/ImNotAMarySue/status/1341685960732491777?s=20) tweet. Sometimes my mind surprises me I guess? Anyways I wanted soft Zagreus with cats and that's what I did. Oneshots are not usually my thing, not as short as this one at least! But here I am.
> 
> (Also somehow this fic murdered the Z and X in my keyboard, don't ask me why or how but from now on I'll just have to Copy-Paste Them Every Time)
> 
> Also! Take a look at [this fanart made by @maru_alidades!!!](https://twitter.com/maru_alidades/status/1341701577497845761) He made it when he read my tweet and he's kind of guilty I ended up writing the fic. I just needed to get it out of my chest, really.
> 
> Feel free to leave kudos or comments if you're feeling generous. You can also scream at me at my twitter (same handle as here, ImNotAMarySue) for writing this amount of softness and make you read it. I will 100% understand it.


End file.
